Maharashtra became the first state in the country today to approve a regulator for the housing sector which would have sweeping powers, including the authority to fix prices of houses, in a bid to control the sector. The Maharashtra Housing Sector Regulatory Commission Act 2008, when passed by the state Assembly, will give the regulator powers of a civil court to settle disputes, regulate builders and have a separate budget to function independently, besides allowing it to set prices of flats built for the poor and middle classes by government agencies and private builders. The formation of the highly publicised commission and introduction of the Bill in the ongoing session of the Assembly was cleared by the Vilasrao Deshmukh cabinet on Thursday, top government sources told The Indian Express. The decision follows a recommendation by the Law Commission to enact a law and form a commission to deal with contentious issues in the housing sector. The commission will have three members, including a chairperson, who will be a well-known housing sector expert. It will also have an advisory committee of up to 21 members who will be experts from areas related to housing, sources said. The commission will have the powers of a civil court, will ensure registration of builders, monitor the issuing of permissions for use of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes, promote special residential zones for affordable housing, promote housing exclusively for rental purposes, streamline procedures for approving building plans, protect the "interest' of flat buyers, create a separate corpus of funds and penalise offenders. The promotion of special residential zones and encouraging housing complexes exclusively for renting is also expected to increase the supply of houses, officials said. The commission would also register builders, monitor housing rules are followed, listen to appeals and take action against violators. Some officials said that while the government had agreed to form a housing regulator on the lines of ones in the telecom and energy sectors, it had been given several key powers such as the authority to decide the percentage of houses to be reserved for the low and middle income groups and whether to include government agencies under its jurisdiction. The state government published the draft state housing policy on November 1, 2006. After inviting suggestions and objections, the draft was revised and presented in the assembly on July 23, 2007. Regulator can even fix prices, set rules